Then perhaps speaking generally would be better, instead of picking apart, misreading and making assumptions on my specific situation. I’m aware you do not have enough info to make an informed decision. And obviously, “a faded” coat is not the reason I’m providing higher copper/zinc, but that’s been explained multiple times.
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I WAS speaking generally with a few exceptions. I’m sorry you read it otherwise.
My coming 3 YO is on Triple Crown Growth + an extra 1000 IU vitamin E and I’ve been very pleased with her weight and body condition.
I agree on the coat issues mostly being due to diet. I am blanketing because we have had extremely cold weather and I don’t want to waste cals with him keeping warm, mostly. Also blanketing because he is turned out with two other youngsters and they play hard. He was also covered in fairly large bites and scrapes when I got him that I don’t want to add to. Blankets are changed out weather appropriate in terms of warmth, no issues with sweating or moisture underneath. He is also throughly groomed daily, which I do not think was happening in his prior situation.
Regarding the SR Sport, yes it is the SR Sport, not the added glucosamine. I should have worded that more appropriately and not capitalized the plus. I did do the nutrition calculator on Mad Barn and Platinum, with what he has right now, he’s getting well over 100% on everything needed nutritionally. I did add the Tough as Nails for the added vitamins and mineral plus the biotin, that I felt would help for overall coat and hoof health. I also considered doing the Mad Barn Aminos and copper/zinc instead, or Omenity. The Mad Barn DVM nutritionist wanted me to switch to the Tribute growth instead of senior, and I asked how long. I was told there is “ There is a huge gap in our detailed nutritional knowledge between the age of 2 and full adult at 5. I would continue the growth formula for him at least through 30 months, if not the whole 2 YO year”. Didn’t sit well with me since there are extensive studies done with young horses and I don’t understand why Mad Barn wouldn’t have access to that. I was also told to replace the 1lb of alfalfa pellets at each feeding with 1lb of wheat bran. This sat even worse with me since 1) that is a large amount of wheat bran per feeding 2) that would block calcium absorption and create a phosphorus overload. This is the same person who suggested the monthly deworm, regardless of parasite load. I did do a FT and he did not show a high load, so I appreciate the feedback on this aspect.
I was told by Mad Barn to switch to 1 scoop of Omenity per 10lbs of hay to replace the Tough As Nails. I’m still debating on this. They also wanted me to switch to their oil supplement, but I do feel that the camelina plus fish oil is a better Omega balance.
I’ve had so many conflicting answers regarding amount of grain fed. I did see the nutrition calculator for overall lbs fed, I am not sure if he is 1000lbs, though. He may at this point now since he’s adding so much height in a short period of time and filled out behind. He’s also very large boned and has a deep heartgirth, but leggy and narrow chested right now.
Would you still keep the alfalfa pellets and maybe add a flake or two at evening feed additionally? He’s fed hay with the other youngsters when turned out in the early AM, so PM would be the only time to add alfalfa forage.
Noted here - our water and soil is very high in iron and does play a role in me wanting to make sure there is adequate copper/zinc in his feeding supplementation.
This is almost exactly what I ffed/feed my young warmblood, and it worked splendidly.
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to my knowledge, the research has shown that at around 24 months, their nutritional needs are fairly adult-like. I’ll ask the PhD nutritionists I know if they know anything different
Yet another couple of black marks added to the long list of black marks for MB’s “nutritionists” , yikes!
I wouldn’t do this on top of the amount of fortified feed you’re using. At most, use their 3:1 copper and zinc supplement. Yucc’ It Up has Hay Harmony which has cu, zn, and biotin.
Always go by what’s on the back of the bag. I would expect a nearly 2yo WB to be close to 1000lb, unless he’s on the smaller side and destined to be maybe 16h or a bit less.
If he’s too thin, I think that’s not a bad idea for now, and you can just gauge his weight. As long as you’re feeding the minimum required of the feed, then extra calories can come from more or higher calorie forage, or bumping up the feed by a few pounds. Both are totally suitable.
Yes, pretty common, and it’s not a bad idea to add more. It’s not going to hurt, and it may help
Here’s what has worked well for me. Note that I am in a high iron area.
Triple Crown gold balancer: at your guy’s age, Fed to adult weight. Read the bag.
Copper and zinc supplement of your choice. I have used both Mad Barn and Horsetech.
Free choice, medium quality orchard grass hay. For your baby, I would perhaps switch to a second cutting, higher quality hay.
One 5lb pound flake of alfalfa p.m.
Access to grass, roughly 8 to 10 hours per day
During growth spurts, if he started to look a little too ribby, I would add Triple Crown Senior. If the senior weighed in excess of 3 pounds, I would deduct some of the balancer. I called the company to get the math right.
During growth spurts, and if the pasture was low, I would add vitamin E. At one point I was adding 2000 IU/day
Photos are from about 2 1/2 months old to 4 1/2 years old.
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Amount of grain fed entirely depends on what you are feeding. Also very common for young horses to look ribby when going through a large growth spurt. Idea is to support their nutritional requirements but avoid overloading them with grain as a way to “catch up.” A lot of people overfeed concentrates to their young horses to keep them in “show condition” when in reality, sometimes young horses don’t look great for a moment. I will typically add 3 pounds of additional feed (not RB) up to 5 pounds with beet pulp if they are going through a major growth spurt in the dead heat of summer and struggling. They will look better once they get through the growth spurt and then I’ll back down on grain (same amount of RB).
I also do feed alfalfa based on recommendations from universities and the fact that they appear to be in better condition when they have access to about 5 pounds of alfalfa a day. Better coat quality, darker, helps support gastric health and can also help their hooves. Also, some seem to benefit from the little bit of increased protein in periods of high growth.
@Arlomine, lovely horse. What’s their breeding?
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He is my horse of a lifetime. KWPN. By Secret out of a jazz/Juventus mare. He will be my dressage horse, but he’s getting a pretty well-rounded education.
IMG_1493
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Forgive me, JB. The 4 posts of you dissecting everything I wrote didn’t read that way. I’m just a plebeian who can barely open a feed bag.
@Arlomine, congrats, his canter looks wonderful.
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My coming 2 yo gets 6 qts of TC Senior per day, Santa Cruz Vit E and alf/grass mix free choice hay. He’s the first WB baby I have had that needed that much feed, mostly I have used a ration balancer. He’s not fat at all.
On fading – my older horse is brown/dark dark bay, and fades a LOT at the end of summer. At the exact same time, his coat is soft and his dapples come out beautifully. What is the difference between fading and bad fading, and how do I tell if he should be getting more of something?
IME, color fading, but the presence of a soft shiny coat, is mostly, or all about the genetics you can’t change. nd1 is part of the Dun family and is very prevalent, including in breeds where Dun (the actual coat dilution D) doesn’t exist. TBs don’t have Dun, but have nd1
nd2 is zero dun factors of any kind. D is some to all of the dun factors, including the obvious coat dilution.
nd1 is in between. It may or may not cause some dun factors, notably a strong dorsal stripe but one that doesn’t continue into the tail (that’s a requirement for Dun). And it may, or may not cause some mild coat dilution, a bit more noticable if he’s nd1/nd1, but still nothing like D.
But, nd1 still changes the physiology of the hair shafts, and that allows hair to bleach, and there’s nothing you can do about that. nd1/nd1 will fade more than nd1
About the only thing you can do to decide if nutrition is responsible for some level of fading, is start right now, to impact the health of the Summer coat, and see what you have at the end of this Summer.
My dark dark bay is also a lot lighter by August, than his new Summer coat in April/May, and there’s no shortage of cu/zn in his diet. And like yours, his coat is still soft and shiny
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The only thing that REALLY affected my fading-bay-TB’s coat was keeping him inside under a fan in the summer. Less UV, less sweat. Increasing Cu/Zn by itself wasn’t enough.
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Agreed on the Mad Barn advice. Tribute of course wanted me to switch to all of their products, which is to be expected. I did contact Platinum Performance twice, but never heard back. I would agree at 2 that needs are close to an adult that would be in heavier work in terms of feeding amounts
I’ll look up the z/c/b supplement 
He’s put on a solid 2 plus inches in height since mid December and is a little over 15.3 the last time I sticked him, so he’s definitely not going to be shorter. I haven’t string tested him but from my past experience and the amount he’s growing, it would be likely that he will be over 17hh when mature. Sire is 16.3 and dam is 17.1 as well. I would estimate he’s probably at 1000 at this point, When he first arrived, I would say he was closer to 800.
Biggest issue with forage is he shares when turned out, so I am a bit limited on what he consumes directly. He does have a big appetite but not a rushed eater and there’s rarely hay left in his stall in the AM after he’s fed in the evening. I do feel that if I continue to add more hay at night, it may cross the threshold of not finishing by the time he’s turned out again and sharing with the other two
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Lovely horse!
Close to what I am feeding in terms of hay, it is a mainly orchard grass 1-2nd cut with a small amount of alfalfa (I’d say 10% and up to 20%) on some bales. It is good quality. I do have access to 3-4th cut if needed to consider as an evening feed that is very high quality.
The grass is the big issue here due to weather. I’m in the Midwest and we are still the middle of a big cold snap and had an emergency level drought last year. Grass coming in will be slow, I’d say April as the best bet for quality.
I did consider adding in some vitamin e as well.
I have seen the ribby growth spurts quite often with young WBs, my biggest concern with him is that there is very little fat covering at all over his ribs. He’s also extremely deceptive on his actual weight in photos vs feel. I can show you pics of when I first got him and he looks completely fine, and others where he looks quite thin taken on the same day. The same goes for the present, certain angles he looks like he’s ready to show in hand and others the thinness is glaring. That said, I do see improvements in such a short time since mid Dec. the ribby component is still there for sure, but he has filled out over his pelvis, and has some more muscling over his shoulder and back that was not there prior.
Also noting, he is very active when turned out with the other two young horses, they play for hours. So I feel there is considerable energy spent turned out
100% recommend. I personally would aim for a total of 2IU/lb of his ideal weight, supplementing what isn’t in his feed to get there And per above, I’d assume all E in feed is at best 50/50 natural synthetic, so you’ll have to do that math - 50% of it as 100%, 50% as 66%. Then add natural E to make up the difference
He does sound a bit too thin, if he’s staying that ribby. That said, sometimes you simply can’t pour enough food into them to get past that, BUT, if the nutrition is up to par, it’s not something I’d really worry about for a young horse who’s going to be big 
And to your point about deception, this is why BCS really, really requires a hands-on assessment. Visuals alone can be deceptive, and pictures, man, those can really hide a lot.
The fact that you’re seeing improvements in muscle covering is good, it means a lot of his weight is being helped by more, and better quality hay. 2yos are bottomless pits a lot of the time LOL And add on top of that a high energy active horse, there may simply be no way to get him to eat enough calories. He CAN eat enough nutrition though
Also, the fact that he’s so active, would have me feeding him, nutritionally, as a 2yo in work, and there are feeds/feeding rates to account for that.
Lovely horse! You must be tickled pink.
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